I have always been a huge fan of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone.” You youngsters out there can see what I mean on the SciFi Channel, as they run these 30 minute B&W gems on a regular basis and occasionally do a “TZ” Marathon. My all-time favorite episode deals with a gangster who passes on to the afterlife and is met by a guide, played to perfection by Sebastian Cabot, impeccably dressed in a white 3-piece suit. The hood is granted his every wish by Cabot-easy money, loose women, M&Ms with the brown ones taken out, you name it. He shoots pool and every ball goes in. He plays roulette and never loses. Every pull on a slot machine is a jackpot. After a while, he naturally gets disenchanted. So he says to Cabot “Geez, I never thought heaven could be so boring.” To which Cabot replies “Heaven…whatever made you think you were in heaven?”

The moral of the story: what fun is it if you never lose?

Hey, like everyone else I would have loved for the Flyers to have beaten X in Cincy, go undefeated the rest of the way and finish the regular season at 24-3. But unfortunately, that ain’t gonna happen. So what? You learn from your mistakes and there was an awful lot of education going on at the Uniform Rental Center back on February 8th that can be put to good use by the guys in Red and Blue on national TV at the Arena on the 22nd. To wit:

— KW can score on X. He might still be flagellating himself for his D on West, but look at the bright side — Keith tied his career high of 24 against the Mouskies. What’s more important, he did it all over the floor, inside and out. No matter how you slice it, that ain’t all bad.

— Sean Finn can and will give X fits on both ends of the floor. Let’s face it, some of those blocks he had that were called fouls at Sphinctas will simply be blocks in UD Arena. I didn’t see the SF alley-oop dunk in the X game, but I have to tell you that the one he had in Pittsburgh vs. the Dukes was the most athletic thing I have seen a Dayton big man do in 35 years of watching the Flyers play. It was that smooth. Now that he no longer wears that club on his hand, his FG and (more impressively) FT percentage are astronomical-at 4-4 on FG and 4-4 for FT, you can’t do any better than he did vs. St. Joe’s. X (and the rest of the A-10, for that matter) better get accustomed to seeing this level of play from SF for the rest of this year and especially when West is gone next season.

— Brooks: you are the man and now is the time.

— MJ: just keep doing what you’re doing. Mark got big-time props from the ESPN guys for his hustle and effort against the Hawks. As to his ‘do, I vote for the same full afro for the X game. Mark should adopt the motto of Big Ben Wallace of the Pistons: “Fear the ‘Fro.”

— Ramod had 10 dimes, but also committed 7 turnovers and only shot 3-11 in the first encounter of the X kind. I have to think that ain’t gonna happen in our house. I imagine his line will be more along the lines of the GW game: 9 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and only 2 TOs. I also don’t think the ref is gonna knock Ramod on his keister when he has a breakaway this time, either.

— Okay, so maybe playing West man-to man isn’t the answer, but you know what? For the first 10 minutes of the game it sure was — let’s not forget that UD jumped out to a 15-point lead on the strength of that strategy. By going straight man, we proved that we can nullify contributions by anyone other than West. What was missing was the “secret ingredient” defense that the Flyers could switch to, once the Mousketeers solved the man-to man plan. If OP, RJ and company are able to crack the code for that secondary defensive scheme — be it box-and-one, matchup zone, triangle-and-two — we win.

— NFW Nate Green misses 4 layups at the Arena. As Bill Walton likes to say “Throw it down, big fella, throw it down!”

— DJ you’re a senior, but you aren’t the only option when there is a big shot to be taken. Do me a favor — go to the home page of this site and hit the audio replay of the UD/Depaul game from 1984. One of the greatest baskets ever scored in UD history was made, not by his shot, but rather off of an assist by Roosevelt Chapman, arguably the greatest Flyer of them all.

— The refs? Well, who knows? I seriously doubt that any zebra from the Greater Cincinnati area will be calling this game, thanks to Bucky Albers’ shrewd detective work. But what if the crew that officiated the all-ugly team whistlefest vs. GW shows up for the X rematch? You think Mr. West will get called for a few offensive fouls? Like that Cajun dude used to say “Garrrr-onnnn-teeed.”

— I believe that coaching will make the difference for UD the second time around vs. Eggsavier. Did you see how well executed the Flyers’ game plan for SJU was? Phil Martelli certainly did — he said it was the first time all year that a team was better prepared than the Hawks were. Sure, Delonte West got his points, but he didn’t do squat in the first half when the Flyers established the lead they would never relinquish. PG Deluxe Jameer Nelson had zero assists in this tilt, as in zip, zap, zero, nada, nuthin’. An equally well thought-out Flyer game plan, properly executed, could result in a similar fate for the X-men.

Xavier didn’t learn a freakin’ thing in the initial battle with UD that they didn’t already know — except that their dirtball mascot better stay off the court and away from Nate Green. X knew then and they know now that they are totally screwed without David West. If UD plays with the same offensive intensity as they did in Cincy and can find the key to neutralizing — even temporarily — the A-10 POY, there will be much singin’, dancin’ and burnin’ of couches in the Ghetto!

I’ll be watching the game from sunny Sanibel Island, FL. Feel free to storm the court! Beat Xavier like a rental car!

That’s it “From the Swamp.”